A brief trip to Hong Kong

The standard practice for visa acquisition at EF Qinhuangdao is to arrive in China on a tourist visa, and then from Qinhuangdao travel to Hong Kong in order to obtain a Z-visa. Hebei province is notoriously finicky (as well as wildly inconsistent) as far as who they give visas to, what kind of visas they give, and when they give them. The first time around I was refused a Z visa because the people in charge of handing them out said I was too young. The rule of thumb for foreign English teachers (at least in Hebei) is that they must be two years removed from college, with both of those years being dedicated to teaching. As I was only a matter of months out of college when I first applied, they turned me down, because it was quite obvious that I did not have two years of teaching experience.
In a confusing turn of events, they gave me an F visa instead, which made absolutely no sense at all. An F visa is a business visa usually given out to experts who come over to China to train, observe, and give advice. They are not allowed to work. In turning me down for a Z visa and giving me an F visa, they not only made me illegal (because I was working), but they essentially turned me down for the only visa that would make remote sense. If I was too young to teach, what in the world could justify them giving me a business visa that made it look like I was in Qinhuangdao to train and offer advice?
Despite these inconsistencies, I had not heard another word about the matter since the visa was issued. I’ve been told that this is just how things work in China. Kind of scary, but there is nothing to be done. A couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of my F visa expiring, my boss started the paper work for a Z visa for me. This time, the people in charge decided to let me have one (six months after I was two years too young I’m now qualified…….headache), so I had to make plans to go to Hong Kong.
As my visa was expiring on June 1 (a Monday), I had to make it to Hong Kong either that day or before. Plans were made for me to leave on June 1 (a small window) and arrive in Hong Kong that night, sorting my visa stuff out the next day.
I woke up on Monday pretty early to pack my stuff for the 4 day trip and then went to the bus station in Qinhuangdao to catch the shuttle to the airport in Beijing. The people at EF who had bought my ticket for me weren’t really helpful in telling me where I needed to go at the airport. I ended up getting off at the wrong terminal and had to take a shuttle bus to the right one. Luckily I was really early so even though I went to the wrong place, I still ended up having to sit and wait for my flight for a long time. I used the time to write in my journal and do some reading.
The flight itself wasn’t half bad. It was a few minutes over three hours, but it passed by quicker than that. I was very nervous about this stage of my trip, because I hadn’t booked a hotel and I didn’t have any Hong Kong money. Everyone told me that I could just do that when I got there, but it still didn’t ease the feeling of apprehension. I don’t really consider myself a seasoned traveler, and my worst nightmare is getting lost in a strange city. Luckily, everything in Hong Kong was well laid out.
As soon as I stepped off the plane, I was face to face with a huge counter that had information about every hotel in the city. One of the people there helped me pick out and book a hotel room that was literally a five minute walk away from the visa office. The next counter down was a money exchange place, where I changed my Chinese currency into Hong Kong dollars.
The airport itself was pretty far removed from everything else on the island, so you had to take a train if you wanted to get to the downtown area. I asked around and managed to get a ticket. The train was very, very nice. It was fast, clean, and efficient. There were only one or two stops the entire way, so it only took about 40 minutes to get to the terminus near the center of the city. At the terminus, I had to get on the subway to get closer to the district where my hotel was. That was an interesting experience, as I am not really used to how subways work. Luckily, pretty much everyone in Hong Kong speaks really good English, so I had no trouble finding someone to help me.
After I got off the subway, I was a bit turned around so I just got a cab driver to take me to my hotel. The driver also had impeccable English, which surprised me. Cab drivers in Qinhuangdao usually have no English, and even their Chinese is hard for me to understand. This guy, however, seemed to be doing pretty well. He kept talking to me about his real estate investments in Shanghai, which is not something you’d have a conversation with a cab driver about in probably any other part of China.
We found my hotel alright, but when I got there I didn’t have enough cash to cover the cost of the room for three nights as well as the deposit. I put my bags behind the desk and set out in search for an ATM. The guy had pointed me to a place about five minutes away, so I went there. I hadn’t been outside much until this point, and the thing I noticed quickly was how sticky and hot it was there. The humidity was unbelievable, and I was sweating in no time.
I found the ATM easily, although I broke some traffic rules on the way there. In Qinhuangdao, it is standard practice to scurry across the road, even in heavy traffic. If you see an opening, you go for it. In Hong Kong, things are much more rigid, and this is something it didn’t take me long to notice. If it’s a red light, you stop. If the sign doesn’t say ‘walk,’ you don’t walk. Well, I walked at the first intersection, looking back and wondering why the few people next to me hadn’t gone as well. It was then that I realized I was no longer in Qinhuangdao, and that maybe people actually follow the rules in Hong Kong. I made a mental note not to do that again.
I got some money, stopped at a 7/11 store to get something to drink and then went back to the hotel. After I paid, I went up to my room and was disappointed to find out that the Harbor View hotel offered no view of the harbor. Despite that, it was still a clean room, which is all I needed. Since it was already late, I just put my stuff down and watched some TV, and then went to bed.

I woke up the following day (Tuesday) a little bit later than I planned on, but still fairly early. I took a shower and wasted no time in getting to the visa place to start sorting out business there. I found the building no problem, and after going through security and up an elevator I found the office.
I filled out my forms and, after waiting in line for a few minutes, dropped all my stuff off with the people there. Given that I was only in Hong Kong for three days, I took no chances and chose the expedited process, which would take just under 24 hours. They gave me a receipt and told me to come back the next morning before noon to pick up my visa.
I left and went back to the hotel to drop my visa paperwork off, and then set off into the city to explore and find some food. At this point, it was just after 12 noon, and it seemed every single street was packed with people. I wanted to find a restaurant to eat in, but every place I looked had people spilling out onto the streets and lines that would discourage even the most potent appetite.
I decided to wait a while before trying to get into a restaurant, so I just went to a corner store and bought some snack food to tide me over until the teeming masses of people went back to work and made the restaurants available. The main city on the island wasn’t that big, judging by the maps I looked at, so I decided to try to explore it on foot.
I walked east towards a section of the city called ‘causeway bay,’ where there were some famous shopping districts and some parks. It was very easy to see why Hong Kong is called ‘the most vertical city in the world.’ Every building seems to be a skyscraper, and in addition to that, they are all packed very close together. It was a very strange feeling walking around in the heart of the city, because it almost felt like I was underwater or underground. One neat thing about it, however, was that it didn’t feel at all claustrophobic. The streets were neatly organized, and despite there being a lot of people, it wasn’t the least bit chaotic.
I wandered around in the causeway bay area for a while before heading back. I didn’t buy anything, because contrary to what people had told me, Hong Kong was actually incredibly expensive. Everything I found there was about on par with American prices.
After I got back to Wan Chai (the part of the city that I was staying in), I found a Subway and immediately went in. It was the next closest thing to extortion as far as how expensive it was, but I didn’t imagine I’d be in a place with a Subway any time soon so I went for it. Seventy Hong Kong dollars and the best foot-long southwest grilled chicken sub I’d ever had later, I was full and ready to go back to my room for a rest.
I walked back to my hotel and watched a little tennis on TV and then took a short nap. When I felt ready to go out again, it was almost dark. I took this opportunity to go check out the famous ‘Star Ferry,’ which is one of the prime tourist attractions in Hong Kong. The island is separated from the mainland by a broad channel of water, and when you take the ferry from one side to the other at night, you are treated with breathtaking views of both Kowloon and the island side. They have nightly light shows which consist of lasers and spotlights being projected into the sky, and when you add that to the bright and colorful lights on all the skyscrapers, it makes for one of the most impressive and beautiful nighttime skylines in the world.
I spent my ferry ride taking pictures and then, when I got off on the other side I sat by the waterside for a while just taking the view in. I hadn’t explored Kowloon at all at that point, but I decided to save that for the next day. I got right back on the Ferry and headed to a different point on the Hong Kong side of the island. This ferry dock turned out to be right next to a bus stop that went to the tram station for Victoria’s peak—a must-see for anyone visiting Hong Kong.
I got on the bus and took it to the tram terminus where I purchased an all-inclusive pass for the tram and the observation point at the top. The tram was notorious for creeping up the terrifyingly steep slope at an unbelievable angle, and I was excited to try it out. It didn’t disappoint, and there were a few times when I swear we must have been ascending at a 50 degree angle.
Once at the top, I made my way through the honeycomb of shops and museums in the observation point at the top of the mountain and went up to the observation deck. I was really looking forward to that because it was supposedly an amazing view from the top. When I made it to the top, I was disappointed to find that the deck was partially shrouded in clouds and that the view that night wasn’t very good at all. I could still see some pretty neat things, and it was clear enough to tell that on a good night it would be an epic view, but it wasn’t what I hoped it would be.
I spent a little more time at the top wandering around on the trails that they had there, but as there was no view there wasn’t a whole lot to do, so I didn’t waste a whole lot of time in heading back down on the tram.
There was another really great place near the tram terminus that I had read about. There was apparently a great bar district with a lot of live music nearby, so when I got off the tram I set out on foot to find it.
I walked for about ten minutes before I finally came across the place I was looking for. It turned out to be every bit as wild as my travel book described. It didn’t cover a lot of area, but the district (made up of a few streets) made the most of its space. Every building was either a bar or a restaurant or a combination of both, and they were packed together very tightly. There was live music at most of them, and despite all of the places being so close together, the sounds amazingly didn’t bleed together very much.
I was by myself, so I didn’t really feel like going to any of the bars to listen to music. Flying solo in a bar district in a strange city didn’t seem like the best idea. I was content to just walk around and check out the sights and sounds.
After I felt like I had seen enough, I made my way to a subway station and took the subway back to Wan Chai. I didn’t want a huge or lengthy affair for dinner, so I just picked some stuff up at McDonalds and then headed back to my hotel room where I watched tennis on TV for the rest of the night and then went to bed.

On Wednesday, I woke up to a torrential downpour. I had to go outside nonetheless, because I needed to go pick up my visa. I slogged through the wet streets to the visa office, and picked up my visa. I was pretty much in and out which was great. I was expecting to wait in line again but there weren’t many people there.
After I left the office, the rain had subsided. I went to Subway again for lunch, and then back to the hotel to change and get out of my wet clothes. I watched a little bit of TV, did some exercises for my back and then headed out again.
The goal for the day was exploring the tip of the mainland, which was called Kowloon. I got the ferry across and walked up the main street a few miles inland. I stopped at a Nike store and got some shorts that I couldn’t get in Qinhuangdao, and then continued on to the famous markets filled with fake goods. I didn’t find anything there that I wanted, so I turned around and headed back.
After I got back to the bank of the channel, I took some pictures and then took the ferry back across, retracing my route from the night before. Instead of getting the bus to the tram terminus, I set out on foot to find the ‘escalator’—a moving staircase that went a fair way up the side of the mountain. It was put in place to help people commuting from homes on the side of the mountain.
It didn’t take me long to find it, despite a lack of signs. The escalator itself was really cool. It went almost straight up the mountain, going over roads and between buildings. I’d never seen anything quite like that before.
When I got to the top of the escalator, I didn’t really know what else to do so I decided to continue walking to the top of the mountain. I didn’t know where I was at that time, so I just followed the roads that seemed to be going up. These roads mostly led me past residential areas and schools, and eventually I started getting into some forest, which looked semi-tropical. I took a couple of wrong turns that brought me to places that I didn’t think that I should be, but both times I backtracked and continued on the original road. Eventually I found a small paved path with a sign that said it led to the top of the mountain.
The only other people I saw on that path were people who were walking their dogs or jogging. I was in my street clothes and had a backpack, and must have looked super out of place. It was about 5 minutes before I was completely drenched in sweat. Cleanliness being a lost cause, I decided to make it a workout and went up the hill as fast as I could.
At the top, I did some walking around again. Unfortunately, the top was once more shrouded in clouds, so there wasn’t much to do except go back down. I took the tram down, and by the time I got to the bottom it was almost dark. I hadn’t been able to take any photos of the island from the Kowloon side at night, so I took the ferry back across the channel and tried to figure out how to work the ‘panoramic’ function on my camera. I didn’t do well, but I still got some nice pictures.
After I had fiddled with my camera for a while, I took the ferry back across to the island and returned to my hotel. I changed my clothes and showered (much needed after walking a good 8 miles in my own sweat). After I got cleaned up, I went out intent on finding a mexican restaurant I had passed the previous day. I found it without trouble, and proceeded to single handedly run up a bill of more than 200 Hong Kong dollars. It was one of the pricier meals I’d eaten in China, but boy did it hit the spot after being stuck in a cheese-less city for so long.
After I finished eating, I wandered around the center of the city and observed the nightlife for a while, and then I finally went back to the hotel. I watched some tennis on TV and then went to bed.

Thursday I woke up a bit late, and subsequently had to rush to get all my stuff together. I left the hotel quickly and got a taxi to the airport express—the same train that I took from the airport into the center of the city. I ended up getting there with time to spare, and spent the time in the waiting area writing in my journal.
The flight back was mostly uneventful, although we experienced some turbulence just before arriving in Beijing that had me seriously wondering if I was going to be sick. A three hour bus ride later and I was back home in Qinhuangdao.

Hong Kong was truly an impressive city. Its vertical architecture was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I didn’t get a chance to explore the outer territories or the many parks that can be found on the island, which gives me another excuse to go back. Even though I didn’t see a whole lot of nature while I was there, the city itself was breathtakingly beautiful. There were a lot of buildings that were quite easy on the eyes. There aren’t many things that I’ve seen that are as beautiful as the Hong Kong skyline at night, either.
It was a bustling city that seemed to be lively 24 hours a day. I don’t know if I could ever live there, as it would be a big shock after spending so much of my life in a small town. However, I definitely know that I’d like to go back there. It seems like a great place to go and spend a week or two, as you can do just about anything there.
Another astonishing thing that I noticed about the city was how immaculately clean and organized it was. In Qinhuangdao, trash is thrown on the street with abandonment. No one really cares. In Hong Kong, there are apparently stiff fines for anyone who litters, or even spits on the street. Traffic laws are followed more closely than anywhere in China that I’ve seen before. I even saw workers washing the streets and staircases near my hotel one night. That takes it to a whole new level. I suppose the fact that Hong Kong was controlled by the British for so long has a lot to do with it.
In short, Hong Kong was a charming city. It wasn’t entirely Chinese, nor was it entirely western. It seemed that you could find just about anything there, be it people, entertainment, food, or scenery. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in the area with time on their hands. I know I plan on going back someday.